Post Friday the 13th Fire Tower Fun: 6/14/2014

Mileage: 8.3
Elevation gain: 1803'
Trails used: Logging roads, Bear Hill Trail, One Mile Road, Catamount Hill Trail, bushwhack, Stratham Hill, Rock Rimmon Access Trail, road walks


Okay this report has zero to do with Friday the 13th in any way, shape or form.  Try saying it five times fast though; it's fun!

On to the report.  Brian planned out a mega blitz of fire tower peaks that we could hit (in one day) a few days prior to our usual Saturday's hike.  We would have to take separate car's as Greg had a prior commitment to go to in Massachusetts, so we could hike until around two p.m.  He had a total of eight (8) tower's picked out overall, and if I didn't have to leave early, we could have gotten all eight.

There would alot of driving for these hikes, and I think the time we spent in our car's was greater than the amount of  time actually hiking.

First up was Mine Hill (Devil's Den) in Auburn, New Hampshire.

We parked in a pulloff area right next to Massabesic Lake and right across from a snowmobile trail (Fire Road 42).  We would use this to head to the summit/fire tower remain's.

Greg walking up the road.  Yes, that is a rain jacket.  No, it was not raining.  The mosquito swarm was out in full force despite the overcast weather.

A nice easy quick hike when it's like this.

The summit area (elevation 520') and remain's of the old fire tower.  There is a house that is extremely close to this with private property signs so please respect their property.

Brian heading down  past this old wooden stair case.  Notice the ghost orb following Brian down?

Our second fire tower would be Bear Hill in Bear Brook State Park located in Allenstown, New Hampshire.  Bear Brook State Park is a multi-use park and map's are given out when you pay the four dollars admission fee.  We entered the park through the Podunk Road side.

We parked in a parking area just down the Road from the Bear Hill Trail.

Yellow blazed trail that took us up to the old fire tower remain's.

The summit area (elevation 835') and old fire tower remain's on the summit of Bear Hill.

Large ant hills adorn the summit, besides the fire tower remains.

Since Bear Hill was a quick hike, we wanted to get our money's worth so we headed down the road to hike Catamount Hill from the Deefield Road side of Bear Brook State Park.   This was more of a mileage hike and for potential views from some ledges around and below the summit area.

We parked at a beach/picnic area parking lot and crossed the street at the ranger shack to take One Mile Road to the Catamount Hill Trail.

The start of the Catamount Hill Trail.

Plastic benches abound on this trail so if you get tired...

...have a seat and enjoy the views.

The views for the day were still pretty non existent to this point.  So after we hit the summit of Catamount Hill (elevation 721'), we headed back down to the cars to head to our next destination.

Our third fire tower was Catamount Mountain, located in Pittsfield, New Hampshire.  This was a bushwhack straight up the ridge from the height-of-land off of Route 107.

An old woods road we used to head in to start the bushwhack.

Greg heads into the woods with bug net in tow.

Cairn garden on the summit of Catamount Mountain (elevation 1331').  There were quite a few of these spread across the summit plateau.

There was also a radio/communication tower on the summit.

Our next jaunt would take us into Dover, New Hampshire and the tower that resides on Garrison Hill.  This tower is the third tower to rest on this spot; the first was wooden and burned down and the second was made of steel but replaced with the current one due to safety concerns. 

We actually drove up to the summit as there is a park at the top.  So, it was a nice easy walk over to and up the tower.

A few panorama's from the tower on Garrison Hill.  To the right is Dover, New Hampshire.

Our fifth tower was Stratham Hill in Stratham, New Hampshire.  The fire tower is located in Stratham Hill Park with several trail's that reach the summit area.

The parking area for the start of the trail system to the fire tower.  There were lot's of dog walkers out today!

A few trail signs along the way.  We took the S. Eagle Trail to the Stratham Hill Trail.

Along the way, there are spots in the trail system that one could do various physical activities.  This was a pull up station.  Ask Greg how many pull ups he managed to do (it was a number roughly equivalent to zero!) 

The fire tower is all metal and was in wonderful shape, as is the well manicured lawn leading up to it!

Right below the tower there is this view marker.  It lists peaks, towns and waterbodies in a 360 degree panorama as seen from various points as one looks out from the tower.

The views are really nice from up here.

Back at the Stratham Hill Park there was some kind of Medieval gathering happening.  A bunch of guys were dressed in medieval garb and having a mock fight.  They were going full throttle wailing on each other too.

The last fire tower we did together was Rock Rimmon Hill in Kingston/Danville New Hampshire.  This fire tower is no longer standing.  Property access issues from the side we went but it's an old class V road you can walk down and I am sure it get's snowmobile use in the winter.

There are two ways to get to the old fire tower area and apparently we picked the longer side of the road to start as we had to roadwalk a bit to get to the trailhead.

The start of the Rock Rimmon Trail that makes it's way up to the summit.  It's blazed in orange and relatively easy to follow.

You walk over this boardwalk through a swamp wetlands area.

The summit of Rock Rimmon Hill has a nice view ledge.

The old fire tower foundation pillars. They are on the summit area (elevation 352').  A steel tower once stood here but was taken down about 20 years ago. 

With Greg heading south to Massachusetts, Brian decided to hit one last fire tower since it was on the way home.  Warner Hill (ironically not in the town of Warner, but Derry) is an active tower, but when Brian got there it was closed down for the day.  It was just a short 30 yard walk from the gate to the tower, so not much in the way of extra mileage.

The fire tower on Warner Hill.

The gate where Brian parked and walked up to the tower.

All in all, a productive day.  It started off rainy and bug swarms were the norm throughout the day but we had fun as usual.  I think we can honestly say we've been to every corner of New Hampshire to hike, and we're always finding new places to explore.

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